Complete checkup by the book

Chocola visits literacy program in clinic.

Chocola visits literacy program in clinic.

April 05, 2006|JOSEPH DITS Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- "Is your mama a llama?" At first this is a mildly interesting question to 3-year-old Kyla. But as volunteer Marin Hinzpeter reads the line while flipping through an oversized book, Kyla's attention wanders from her seat in the hospital waiting room. Same happens with the big book about a mouse. "She likes to read; it has to be something she's familiar with, like Barney," says Kyla's mom, 31-year-old Jessica Parmelee, of South Bend. Voila! Hinzpeter picks up a Barney book, and Kyla pays full attention. This is Reach Out and Read, a national program where doctors prescribe books and good reading habits to families. It's here in the Family Medicine Center, which serves Medicaid and Medicare clients at Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center. The local program started in 2002 and is now one of more than 2,500 nationwide. At every checkup for kids from 6 months to 5 years old, the doctors send home a free book in English or Spanish, plus reading tips in either language. And the doctors screen children for a list of developmental skills. U.S. Rep. Chris Chocola dropped by this week to learn about it. He said he sees this as a good way for two important issues -- health care and education -- to dovetail. The timing is good, he said, because Congress is working on the budget now, though the House of Representatives won't set how much it wants to spend on programs -- including this one -- until later this year. President Bush has proposed spending $10 million of the federal 2007 budget on the nonprofit Reach Out and Read. "It's opportunities like this to come and learn that are beneficial to me when we make these decisions," Chocola said. Private grants and donated books, plus federal money, keep the local program going, said Kevin Sherbun, the director of the clinic with 13,000 patients. This is a good spot to find Reach Out and Read's target audience: low-income families, said Naima Joseph. She coordinates the program as part of her year of service with Holy Cross Associates. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame in May and heads to medical school back home in Connecticut this fall. The books and reading "make up for getting shots," Joseph said. Volunteers are in the waiting room just a few hours a day to read with children. Among them are Notre Dame students like Hinzpeter, who's studying psychology and premed. "It gives parents a chance to relax, keeps the child in one spot and gives the child a chance to read a story," said Denise Kapsa, Saint Joseph's director of volunteer service. For some families, this is a chance to keep up what they're already doing. Parmelee says her son, a kindergartner named Julyan, is slightly dyslexic, and a school tutor is helping him to outgrow that. Patricia Brown says her son, Sterling Martin, has been receiving care here since he was born in the hospital in 1998. She reads with him and helps him to say the Spanish words on the waiting room's carpet.